Five years ago Lionel Rawlins pitched up in Yola, north-eastern Nigeria, to run security for the American University there. This was a dangerous spot even before Boko Haram's jihadist insurgency gathered momentum, yet the former marine found only "a ragtag team of guards who couldn't protect anyone from anything". Rather than clean up the mess, he had another idea: to set up his own private security force instead. Today the university is guarded by a hundreds-strong force of his well-turned-out recruits. Private security is big business in Nigeria. The country suffers bombings in the north, sectarian violence in the centre and simmering insecurity in the oil-producing south-east. Red24, a Scottish security firm, says more than 600 people are kidnapped in the country every year, putting it among the five worst for that sort of crime.
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